[Lexx0r]

Yeah pretty decent bit of kit from Halfrauds! Shame everything else in there is junk

I think its a 2 channel, but I can check when I come home. I guess you can tell I have no electrical brains hehe

I guess I will have to run the RCA under the carpet instead of down the side panel where I placed my 12V lead. Do I need to remove the seat to access the AMP or can I struggle under the small gap?

I currently havent bought one? Where does the Line Level go? From the amp?

Only problem with SABAs guide is there is no pictures and the explanation is pretty vague, I dont wanna remove the seat only having to put it all back due to mistakes lol!

Brilliant regarding the blue lead, fuse convertor going to be needed then to make a connection?

Thanks mate

 

[PaulOliver]

No worries, my electrical knowledge aint exactly super either!

I am running my rca under the carpet, next to the centre tunnel.

To gain access to amp1, you do indeed need to remove the seat ideally, but its easy and takes a few minutes to do! Disconnect your battery, then slide the seat forwards...you will see 2 bolts you need to undo, they are torx but i cant remember the size of them (you will need a decent torx kit whilst owning this car, so get some!). Disconnect the airbag connections, and heated seat/memory/wahetver else there is there. The seat then needs yanking back if i remember rightly to release it. You will then see amp1 in all its corroded glory! There will be some screws to undo to release it from the floor, and minimal wiring length allowing for sod all working room. You will see the speaker wires coming out of the amp, these are the ones to tap for the line level. Once fitted, you need to fit the seat back in, and connect all wiring to it. Once you are sure ist all good, you can reconnect the battery. NEVER unplug an airbag without the battery disconnected, you risk it setting off. I will try and photograph my setup for you as a guide.

Blue lead can be wedged into the hole where the fuse sits, then the fuse holds the wire in place...sounds like a bodge but it works alternatively a fuse tap would be a neater solution.

 

[Xplode]

I found that you don't need to remove the seat to get to the amp 1 wires, and if you want abit of working room, its best that you dont.
Unscrew your amp1 from the floor, 1 or 2 screws is all that holds its, unplug the cable connection from the amp and take it out completely, dont throw it away! lol

then where you ran your power cable on the left hand side of the car, is where your amp1 cables come from aswell. open that little cable tray near the passenger seat, and pull out the amp1 connector, careful not to damage your fiberoptics its a pain in the butt to get everything going without them. Identify which speaker leads you want to connect to, cut them from the connector and add in your line out converter.

Again, if you just want to add a couple of speakers into the parcel tray, much easier to splice the leads on the parcel tray itself and you dont need to touch amp1. Especially if your amp1 still works, not a good idea, the fiberoptics in amp1 are what turns on the whole system. no amp1 no sound at all.

If your amp1 is blown, then you need to bypass the fiberoptics anyway to get it all going again. then splice the speaker wires under the seat.

Fuse17 in the boot, is connect as shown in the pic. Ignore the RCA's they were just there for storage haha

 

[aerojon]

If your amp1 is blown, then you need to bypass the fiberoptics anyway to get it all going again. then splice the speaker wires under the seat.

if the amp is blown there is no analogue signal to tap into..

 

[Xplode]

if the amp is blown there is no analogue signal to tap into..

not true, the signal has to come from somewhere in order to get amplified, so analogue inputs to amp1, and then outputs, amp1 only drives 3 speakers in the 7 speakers set up, the 2 front doors, and the center dash.

there is always analogue signal that you can tap into to put an aftermarket amp

the only thing that amp1 is responsible for realistically, is giving the return signal to the head unit through the fiber optics, in order to turn on the system.

 

[aerojon]

the audio signal into amp1 & 2 is digital thru the fibre optic cable & then outputted as an analogue signal for the speakers....

the amps also contain digital to analogue convertors.

 

[Xplode]

im not ruling that out, it is a very distinct possibility, i never had the chance to test it for myself, the amp1 in my car is fried, and i have spliced into the rear speakers for my aftermarket amp, all i did was create a return for the fiber optics, so that the system would turn on.

 

[aerojon]

None of the speakers in the SS has a full range signal as their filtered in the ehu..

 

[Xplode]

so what your trying to say is that, my rear speakers dont work properly?

have u read any part of this thread, or r u just jumping in half arsed?

everyone on this thread has done some sort of bypass on their amp1, put in high level converters, and runs an aftermarket amp. without a problem. Crystal clear sound, no fiberoptics involved. the amp1 is completely redundant.

If you have not done this yourself, or do not need any help in getting it done, dont get involved if you obviously have no clue.

AMP1 runs 3 speakers in the whole car, whether it be 7 speaker, or 9 speaker systems, it runs the front door speakers, and the center dash, that is all, all other speakers get a full range of sound from the head unit, or in the 9 speaker system, from AMP2. The headunit is solely responsible for running the dash left and right speakers, and the rear 4" speakers. Taking an output from them WILL give you the signal required to run an RCA into an aftermarket amp.
I have done this, so has PaulOliver, and neither of us has had a problem with getting a full range of sound.

 

[Jaco2k]

Excuse the ignorant question you lot: is it compulsory to get the power from the battery? I have read about using a 30A fuse from the towing eye as the power feed option. Mind you that this would be only for a low powered amp to feed a subwoofer or for a powered subwoofer. I would like o avoid running wires so long in the car, specially if I would have a power source near they amp at the back.

 

[Xplode]

Excuse the ignorant question you lot: is it compulsory to get the power from the battery? I have read about using a 30A fuse from the towing eye as the power feed option. Mind you that this would be only for a low powered amp to feed a subwoofer or for a powered subwoofer. I would like o avoid running wires so long in the car, specially if I would have a power source near they amp at the back.

I would recommend the power from battery, this way it has it's own fuse, and is seperate from the rest of the systems.

It is never a good idea to share fuses in the car, even for my remote wire, the add a fuse adapter which i used, actually allows for seperate fuses.

For 1 low power amp it may not be a problem to run from the 30A fuse, however if something goes wrong, you blow that fuse, you could cause damage to the car's computer, and then your in a heap of trouble lol.

BTW, i dont mean blowing the fuse will damage your computer, you may cause an overload when you put a new fuse in. I blew a large fuse in an old honda, when I put in a new fuse it didnt blow straight away, and it caused some damage to the engine computer. It cost me $1000 to fix the computer.

Amps draw alot of power, and the fuse in the engine bay that attaches to the battery is generally 50-60A fuse, your 30A may not be able to handle it.

Short answer, no its not compulsory, but it is recommended.

 

[aerojon]

so what your trying to say is that, my rear speakers dont work properly?

have u read any part of this thread, or r u just jumping in half arsed?

everyone on this thread has done some sort of bypass on their amp1, put in high level converters, and runs an aftermarket amp. without a problem. Crystal clear sound, no fiberoptics involved. the amp1 is completely redundant.

If you have not done this yourself, or do not need any help in getting it done, dont get involved if you obviously have no clue.

AMP1 runs 3 speakers in the whole car, whether it be 7 speaker, or 9 speaker systems, it runs the front door speakers, and the center dash, that is all, all other speakers get a full range of sound from the head unit, or in the 9 speaker system, from AMP2. The headunit is solely responsible for running the dash left and right speakers, and the rear 4" speakers. Taking an output from them WILL give you the signal required to run an RCA into an aftermarket amp.
I have done this, so has PaulOliver, and neither of us has had a problem with getting a full range of sound.

the 3.5" & 4" speakers don't get the full/sub bass frequency it is filtered out in the ehu they only get mid/highs,that's why when fitting a sub it's better to tap into amp1 or amp2 for the full/sub bass frequency..

what you see in the dash is the control panel the actual ehu is behind the acc/mcc panel..

Taking an output from them WILL give you the signal required to run an RCA into an aftermarket amp.

I'm not saying it won't.What it won't give you is a full bass signal

If you have not done this yourself, or do not need any help in getting it done, dont get involved if you obviously have no clue.

Over the last 6 months i've fitted 5 active subs into friends cars,not to mention my last 2 cars where i totally upgraded & amped all the speakers as i've also done the 9-3 speakers aswell.So yes i have clue.

the ss saloon/sedan had 3 system types

4,7 & 13 speaker sytems.

 

[Jaco2k]

the ss saloon/sedan had 3 system types

4,7 & 13 speaker sytems.

More, more! There is the 2007+ systems without optical cables where the amp does the crossover and the Bose systems...

 

[2008saab858]

Great post!! Might need to do this later

 

[stevedol]

Just to backup what Aerojon is saying about the filtering of speakers within the 2003-2006 system, take a look at this thread: audio help and in particular this chart:

 

[Xplode]

well looking at that chart, the rear 4" speaker has more than sufficent frequency response to justify using it to run new speakers on the parcel tray.
Especially considering that that signal is going into an amplifier first.

With AMP1 fried, which is what happend to mine, its not like i chose to bypass it, i had to.

I put Alpine typeR 6x9s in the back, wired them to the amp, and the range of sound going through them is pretty awesome. The sound is crisp and clear, at low and at very high volume, so while not delivering a full range, they cover more than enough of the frequency range to justify using them.

In an ideal world, all of our cars would be fitted with AMP1 and AMP2, they would both never get damaged (soaked in water under the seat) would both be about 1000W RMS and all of our cars would have the 13 speaker sound system with top of the range speakers.

However, this is not always possible, the most common problem that requires an audio upgrade in these cars, is the AMP1 getting wet and fried. Looking at $500aus for a 2nd hand one online, or $1000+ for a new one from the dealer. The best option was to splice the rear 4"speaker cables, and add in an amp, or maybe I should have just kept the car without any sound?
If I could have used amp1, I would have. I did the best possible with what was available. If you had bothered to read my whole post you would have noticed the part where i mention that amp1 is fried, and could not be used. So back to my original statement, you have no clue, what so ever

 

[aerojon]

You carry on thinking that then..

 

[Xplode]

You carry on thinking that then..

oh please enlighten me as to how I would take speaker outputs from the AMP1 which is currently sitting in my garage on a shelf.

U seem like a smart guy shouldn't be a hard one for you to figure out.

 

[Jaco2k]

oh please enlighten me asn to how I would take speaker outputs from the AMP1 which is currently sitting in my garage on a shelf.

U seem like a smart guy shouldn't be a hard one for you to figure out.

None of my business, but if you come here looking for belp and then have that attitude when you don't get the answer that suits you, it might be perceived as hostile...

You should listen what you are being told and try to break out of your narrow view.

Your problem seems to be you broke AMP1 and have no way to get a clean signal, yet choose to dismiss everyone's claims it is filtered by saying it sounds good enough.

 

[Xplode]

None of my business, but if you come here looking for belp and then have that attitude when you don't get the answer that suits you, it might be perceived as hostile...

You should listen what you are being told and try to break out of your narrow view.

Your problem seems to be you broke AMP1 and have no way to get a clean signal, yet choose to dismiss everyone's claims it is filtered by saying it sounds good enough.

OMG are non of u reading anything here beyond the last 3 comments.

I dont have a problem, I came on here, read the guide by Paul Oliver, installed my amp wires. noticed some other people asking questions about connecting their own amps, (you included) thought I would give them some info based on my experience, and I got told that i did it all wrong by some know it all.
I did it the way that was possible for my situation, im not going to go spend $1000 on a new AMP1 in order to connect it the way it should be done, with the appropriate converters, and a good amp to control the gain, and filtering, the speakers sound fantastic.

All everyone proved here while trying to argue with me is that the best speakers to splice into when lacking an AMP1 are the rear 4" as they get the largest range of frequency compared to any other speakers in the car.

If you simply want to connect a new amp, and have no problem with your AMP1, then please splice into that for a perfect analogue signal, while your at it, disconnect your battery, reset your entire computer system in the car, risk popping the in seat air bag and remove the seat, then splice into your amp1 wires, and dont accept any advice given that there are easier, less stressfull ways of adding an amplifier. Only for rear speakers, if you want to change your door speakers, or center speaker by all means, AMP1 is the way to go, it powers all of 3 speakers in the system.

The only help i needed here was from Paul Oliver and not some know it all that wanted to put in his 2 worthless cents.

The set up I have works very well for my situation. If anyone has similar issues I am more than happy to help as i know the AMP1 blowing can be a pain in the butt.

I acknowledged the fact that, my way is not the best way if you have your AMP1, I also acknowledge that in the particular case of this car, I am not an expert on the distribution of signal by the EHU.

If anyone has any actual constructive input to my problem please, tell me how I can get the full range of sound without replacing AMP1.
Otherwise there is no point to keep telling me that I dont have a full range of sound, I know that, i need a solution, not 100 people telling me the problem